@Emi1yRogers: They are planting the seeds for third party relationships now so when Xbox 720/PS4 come out, they won't be left high and dry.

@TwoTribesGames: I think they will be once the publishers again discover it's a haven for casual oriented titles and it costs extra to downscale.

It didn't take long for an explanation to appear, however:

I'm Collin from Two Tribes and I f***** up. To be clear: That tweet was my personal opinion, and wasn't supposed to be sent out from the Two Tribes account.

This is apparently what happens when you send out a tweet on the wrong account and take the day off to hand out balloons at a fundraiser.

Aside from the tweet coming from the wrong account, the 140 character limit of a tweet also didn't give enough context to fully express my opinion, so I thought I'd elaborate on it in this forum post.

Again: This is my personal opinion, Two Tribes doesn't have an opinion since it's a company

What I meant to say was that I expect the bigger developers/publishers to get power hungry again after a while. Even though the difference will probably be smaller this generation, Nintendo's machine is still likely going to have less horsepower than the next machines from Microsoft and Sony. This is what I expect to happen, I have no inside knowledge on this, it just makes sense to me. If this happens, it's also likely that they will not always want to downscale their game's assets, I think in part because of their ego, but also because of the cost involved.

What I meant with the casual reference, is that I think the Wii U will be home to more casual titles than other platforms. The look and feel of Nintendo's own games, combined with the habits of publishers putting out more casually oriented titles on Nintendo platforms, will probably result in the machine having a more family friendly reputation. Nothing wrong with it from my perspective, but that kind of games are not being made by larger developers/publishers generally.

Then to close it off: My tweet was not intended to sound negative about the Wii U's prospects. I expect it to do well and I'm definitely doing to grab one at launch.

Feel free to continue the discussion, it's been interesting to read everyone's opinions in this thread.

What are your thoughts on Collin's comments? Does he have a point? Let us know in the comments section.

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User Comments (29)

Of course he's got a point, the Wii U will definitely still be the casual's console of choice - I don't think that can be denied - and I'm guessing there'll be less of them this time around so it'll likely be outsold by the next Xbox.

I still think it'll do alright, a couple more titles in the vein of ZombiU and Bayonetta should generate a decent amount of core gamer sales. And you never know... Sony have got a lot to do with their next console and Microsoft are perfectly capable of a good balls-up.

He's got a point. There's nothing wrong with Nintendo being the the "home" for casuals. That itself is an advantage for Nintendo and Sony/MS doesn't even embrace the casual audience much. A haven for casual gamers is cool and all but I just hope "non-casual" games will still pour on to Wii U/3DS or Nintendo in general.

I think he's really talking about the major cross-platform titles specifically. I suspect that once the other two get their consoles out, and development is oriented towards their specs, Wii U is probably going to struggle to get those titles & perhaps even ports of them in the long run...

Though that comment doesn't take into account that maybe the increasing costs of game development associated with the new console tech. of the Xbox720 & PS4 might lead some 3rd parties to look to the Wii U as a more cost-effective and less risky platform to develop for.

Wii U could actually become a haven for innovative/creative 3rd party exclusives, because developers are very familiar with the technology, it's going to be less expensive to develop for with a potentially enormous installed base. Who knows??

I'm not sure what he's basing his conclusions on, but it's going to be important that titles like Assassin's Creed 3, Zombi, Darksiders, and Bayonetta sell well initially to show 3rd parties that there is an audience for their games, and not just Nintendo titles & casual games. If they sell poorly, then it's going to be hard to attract 3rd parties for the rest of the consoles lifetime.

Plus I thought the casuals already jumped ship?? They've got their i-phone's and android devices to entertain them right?? Why would they need a wii-u?

I think people need to get off the twitter because it's bad for their health/reputation. Just look at all those celebrities and the facepalmy crap they post on twitter time to get a real life I reckon.

I love Nintendo with all my heart but I will be crushed if the Wii U becomes "the Console for the whole family to enjoy", I mean its good to make some games like that but I really dont want that to become Nintendo prime objective on Wii U, because then a lot of bad games come out...

I just wish people would understand that fps and sports games are the casual titles. You just pick them up and play and can put them down whenever. Just because casual gamers think those are hard core titles and therefore call themselves hard core gamers doesn't make that true. facepalm Not that there's anything wrong with being a casual gamer, I just wish people wouldn't associate Nintendo with the "casual" audience when it's really the Xbox that caters more to the casual gamers needs. I suppose people don't see it that way because most of the casual games on Xbox and PS are rated M, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a casual game. That's another delusion most people have these days as well, that it can't be good unless it's rated M. I think if people understood these things then they would not only stop thinking that being a casual gamer is a bad thing but also take Nintendo more seriously.

I know what these people are talking about. Nintendo does have a history of having more "family friendly" games particularly with the Wii, but there's a difference between "family friendly" and "casual". The two are not one in the same.

While his opinion could come to fruition, I am more of the thought that developers will be more apt to create for the Wii U because of its (I surmise) large install base, wallet friendly price, and innovative gameplay... especially if the next-gen systems are over $500-$600. I am not going to even think about buying a system that is over $600. That is ridiculous. It is basically a gamer meme these days but it is still a fact - the next-gen systems are not going to be as much as a technical jump as the last gen... So what is the point in paying that much more for... not that much more? Games - that is the ONLY reason. Toki Tori is awesome but... I'm not going to buy a system for a game like that. Sorry. Beyond that, if I was the CEO of Two Tribes this guy would get fired so fast his head would spin. Based ONLY off of this man making my company look bad to both Nintendo fans and Nintendo itself. I could care less what he thinks, opinions are a dime a dozen, even less these days, I'm just putting myself in the boss man's shoes.

His opinion is probably more informed and just as valid as most of ours.

The face of video gaming is certainly in a major upheaval and I don't think anyone has a grasp on it yet. Tablets, smart phones, consoles with traditional gamepads and motion controls, and PCs with mice and keyboards and Facebook are all hammering out what consumers want as gamers and its more complicated than ever.

The good news is that the net is far wider than it has ever been and there is likely room for a few successful approaches.

People confuse the difference between casual gamers and hardcore. Casual gamers could have only Bf and COD and only play for about 5 or 6 hours. While Core gamers could have Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Metroid, Dk and play for like 20 plus hours. Most people believe core gamers buy mostly M rated and the casuals buy E & T games.

@Boo_buster That's a ridiculous reason to fire someone. I'm not sure if you even read all the article. If you read the explanation he made later, what he was saying, really wasn't that bad and made a lot of sense too.

@Silverbullet89 You receive 350 internets for your post. A concise way to say what many of us have been saying for a long time.

I think it is way too early to try to predict what Collin is predicting. It's a VERY possible prediction, but we don't know how Microsoft and Sony will market their consoles. We don't know how much more powerful they will be than the Wii U. We don't know whether they will be expensive. We do not know how rising game development prices will effect where various 3rd party games will be going. We do not know whether casuals will buy the Wii U. We don't know how company loyalty among fans will play out. Too many variables we don't know about to be confident in an opinion like that. One of the likely scenarios, but there are different scenarios and we don't even know how the major factors will play out.

If Nintendo can become a console that attracts the most casuals while still getting ports of all the major 3rd party games, it will win. But again, we do not know whether casuals will buy consoles. We do not know anything and will just have to wait and see how it will play out.

Don't really care what his opinion is, but you have to be absolutely sure if you're going to express it that you aren't on your company's twitter account instead of your own personal one. On top of that, this whole 'casual' and 'hardcore' bs has to stop at some point but won't as long as people like this guy continue acting like little children and throw the words around with a positive or negative connotation. There's lots of 'hardcore' games that are just as putrid as the 'casual' games people like this clown and others want to bring down. And as a 30 year old who's been gaming for a long time I also have enough sense to know that being a 'core,' 'hardcore' or whatever kind of gamer doesn't earn you any points in the real world. So for all the 14 year olds and the adult developers in this industry with the minds of 14 year olds, please, grow up, a woman does not give a crap what your kill to death ratio is in your very 'hardcore' Call of Duty or how many characters you've stabbed in Assassin's Creed.

How about just good games? Who gives a damn what kind of label it gets from morons with no clue? I'll take something like Super Mario or Wii Sports Resort any day of the week and twice on Sunday over generic garbage like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Homefront or the countless other war based FPS that the 'hardcore' crowd loves to hype up.

honestly i see his point with what he is saying. its like when x box rushed the first 360 system out because they wanted to be the cool kids on the block, instead of waiting and imporiving like nintendo and sony did with the ps3 and wii. shortly after it came out there was a slew of x boxes breakiing down and they didnt have the power of its two newer competitors. but they upgraded and added new hardware and are now up to par. now i see nintendo rushing out a new system to be better than the other two instead of waiting it out, and i see the same result happening. they are going to have to do some major hardware updates in the future to be on the same playing level with the other two systems when they come out. however this will not stop me from getting a wii u. lol im stoked its coming out so soon.

@Boo_Buster did you read the article ? because even in the header it says 'founder'. It's very unlikely Collin is going to fire himself.

I think his opinion is correct and I think it's really great for Nintendo. I mean, the big reason the Wii did so well is because of all the casual gamers going for Wii Sport.

We just have to realize that the casual group is much larger than the hardcore group.

And what is the problem with that ? It puts Nintendo in a great position where they can work on their own games without any pressure. I mean, as long as we can enjoy great Mario,Metroid,Pikmin,Pokemon and Zelda titles on WiiU I will be a happy hardcore gamer!